Edwin Michael Holt was an American manufacturer and planter. He was the establisher of The Alamance Cotton Mill and he Commercial National Bank of Charlotte.
Background
Edwin Michael Holt was born on January 14, 1807 in Alamance County, North Carolina, United States. His greatgrandfather was Michael Holt, who went to North Carolina from Virginia about 1740, and was a machinist and farmer. Michael Holt Jr. , grandfather of Edwin Michael, was a blacksmith, storekeeper, and landowner on Little Alamance Creek. He was a Loyalist, a magistrate, and a captain of militia, and was imprisoned in Philadelphia, 1776, for leading a Loyalist force at the command of the royal governor; but, on professing allegiance to the Patriot cause, he was released at the request of his State. His son, also named Michael, married Rachel, daughter of Benjamin and Nancy Rainey. As a member of the state legislature, 1804, 1820, 1821, he favored internal improvements.
Education
Holt, being a younger son, did not go to the university, but worked on the farm in the summer, went to the country school in winter, and picked up a good knowledge of mechanics in his spare time.
Career
Holt conducted a store and small farm near his father's home until 1836, when he resolved to manufacture cotton. He had become familiar with the little factory of Henry Humphries at Greensboro, and was convinced that there was profit in manufacturing the staple in the South. His father and brother-in-law, William A. Carrigan, were not willing to give him assistance, but he boldly went to Paterson, New Jersey, and ordered machinery. Chief Justice Thomas Ruffin of North Carolina, whom Holt met in Philadelphia, offered to help him with a site and money. When he reported this fact to his family, they relented, and the mill was erected on the water power which ran Michael Holt's grist mill, Carrigan investing money and entering the firm, which was known as Holt & Carrigan. The little factory started during the depression of 1837, but made steady progress.
In 1853 (Carrigan had left the enterprise by this time) a French dyer offered to teach Holt to dye for $100 and his board. A large copper boiler which had been used to cook turnips for the pigs, and a wash kettle from the store were used for the vats in which the first yarns to be dyed for power looms south of the Potomac were dipped. Soon a dye house was equipped, some four-box looms were installed, and the manufacture of "Alamance Plaids, " long a celebrated name in the industry, was commenced. The mill had begun with 528 spindles and soon sixteen looms were added.
By 1861 it had 1, 200 spindles and ninety-six looms. It was smaller than several other Southern cotton mills of the time, but Holt reared his sons in the business, and they all built plaid mills nearby, which twenty years after his death aggregated over 160, 000 spindles.
In 1866 he retired from active management of his Alamance mill. He held no office but that of associate judge of the county court. A consistent advocate of internal improvements, when the state treasury was in distress after the war he loaned $70, 000 to the North Carolina Railroad, of which he was a director, without security. With his sons he established the Commercial National Bank of Charlotte. He was a lifelong friend of John M. Morehead, Thomas Ruffin, and Francis Fries. At the time of his death, which occurred at his home, "Locust Grove, " Alamance County, he was accounted the richest man in North Carolina.
Achievements
Holt manufactured the so-called Alamance Plaids, the first cotton goods produced in the South on power looms. The Alamance Cotton Mill was established by Holt and his brother-in-law, William A. Carrigan, signalling the start of industrial development in Alamance County, and the beginning the Southern textile industry. Holt is now is considered the father of textiles in Alamance County.
Connections
On September 30, 1828, Holt married Emily Farish, the daughter of a farmer of Chatham County, by whom he had ten children.
